State Houses Thread

[GreyhoundFan]

What a prince (note sarcasm): "Oregon legislator groped, grabbed women right on the state Senate floor, says official report"

Spoiler

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) called on Republican state Sen. Jeff Kruse to resign after a report by an independent investigator found he repeatedly subjected women to uncomfortable hugging and unwanted touching — sometimes on the Senate floor or in the governor’s office — even after repeated warnings. He did some of these things even while cameras were rolling, the investigator found.

“Senator Kruse’s behavior is not acceptable in the Capitol or any workplace, and he should step down,” Brown said in a statement reported by the Oregonian Tuesday night. “The legislature must immediately take steps to ensure that every person who walks into Oregon’s Capitol is safe and respected, allowing the focus in the capitol to be where it should: on serving the people of Oregon.”

House Speaker Tina Kotek (D) also called for his resignation Tuesday, saying in a statement to KGW 8 that if he doesn’t step down then “the Senate should expel him.”

The 51-page report, compiled by private attorney Dian Rubanoff, found that Kruse exhibited a “long-standing pattern” of “engaging in unwelcome physical contact toward females in the workplace.”

Rubanoff added that though Kruse, 66, was repeatedly confronted about his behavior, “he stubbornly refused to change.” Kruse told Rubanoff, “It’s not easy to change when you have been doing something for 67 years.”

The investigation came after two Democratic Oregon state senators — Sen. Sara Gelser and Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward — publicly accused Kruse of sexual harassment last fall. In her official complaint at the time, Gelser said Kruse touched her inappropriately on the breast and upper thigh both while on the House and Senate floors and in committee hearings. She also said that sometimes he would whisper so closely to her ear, it would be wet when he pulled away. She also alleged that Kruse sexually harassed at least 15 other women.

Rubanoff’s report supported Gelser’s statement and found several new instances of alleged misconduct, including against a lobbyist and two law students who used to work for Kruse, among many others. According to the report, Kruse had a pattern of making women “feel trapped” by his lingering hugs, and he would often place his hands on women either near or partially on their breasts or beneath their waists.

The senator did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday and early Wednesday morning from several publications, including The Washington Post. In October, when asked about some of the allegations, he told the Oregonian, “I have never done anything that I believe anybody could portray as being sexual.”

Kruse was “oblivious” to his behavior until he was specifically asked to stop hugging or touching female legislators and staff in 2016, the report stated. It added that Kruse admitted he did nothing to change his behavior even after the warning, claiming he didn’t know who complained about him, “and he did not want to stop hugging and touching all of them.”

After that, his behavior “actually escalated during the 2017 session,” the report stated.

In one episode, Kruse “cupped the buttocks” of a female lobbyist during a 2017 photo session in the governor’s office, which was crowded with small groups of people. She didn’t initially report the incident because she felt that doing so could be detrimental to her career, given that she “was a new lobbyist and he was a senator.”

In another, Kruse called a female law student who worked in his office during the 2017 session “sexy” and “little girl.” Sometimes, he would walk up behind her while she was seated at her desk, put his hands on her shoulder and place his chin on her head, sometimes for more than 20 seconds.

She didn’t initially report the incident because she too feared it could harm her career.

Hayward said she confronted Kruse about his behavior on Oct. 19, 2017. She asked if he was aware of the #MeToo movement, the accusations against Harvey Weinstein or the Dwayne Johnson test — the idea that if one wouldn’t do something to Johnson, he shouldn’t do it to female colleagues — according to the report.

The report will be considered by the Senate Conduct Committee during a public hearing on Feb. 22, the Oregonian reported. The committee can recommend the that the Senate reprimand, censure or expel Kruse — any of which would require a two-thirds majority vote.

If Kruse is expelled for sexual harassment, he won’t be the first in the #MeToo movement. The Arizona House of Representatives voted 56-3 to expel Republican Rep. Don Shooter last Thursday after several women accused him of sexual misconduct, the AP reported.

 

[Cartmann99]

16 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Rubanoff added that though Kruse, 66, was repeatedly confronted about his behavior, “he stubbornly refused to change.” Kruse told Rubanoff, “It’s not easy to change when you have been doing something for 67 years.”

Jackass.

I wish someone would invent something thin, lightweight, and voice-activated that could easily be worn under clothing. You'd set up a code word, and then when someone gets handsy with you, you say the code word, and it shocks the shit outta them. 

[GreyhoundFan]

I wasn't quite sure where to post this: "Republicans want to turn the entire country into Oklahoma"

Spoiler

We have in this country an essentially unchanging disagreement about what model of governance will produce the best economic and social results. Democrats advocate what we might call weak social democracy: relatively high taxes (though lower than those of our peer countries), combined with a relatively strong safety net (though again, not as strong as other countries), spending on needs like education and health care, and economic regulation to protect workers, consumers and the environment.

Republicans, on the other hand, advocate low taxes, less social spending and less regulation. Both sides have moral arguments for why their models are better, but they also make practical arguments. They say that their model works, and that when it is implemented, we see positive results.

While the moral argument may not be resolvable, the practical argument can be tested. And right now we’re seeing tests take place all over the country. I want to focus on one such test, in the deep-red state of Oklahoma, and what it says about what Republicans are doing in Washington.

Like many states controlled by Republicans, Oklahoma has for some time been putting the GOP theory into practice: low taxes, little regulation and weak social spending. On the tax front, it has been particularly aggressive, since state law mandates that no tax increase can pass without a three-quarters majority in the state legislature. This has created a one-way ratchet, in which any tax cut is effectively permanent and taxes can only go down.

And has it produced the boundless prosperity Republicans predict? Well, no. In fact, the state is now in a full-blown fiscal crisis. Here’s a summary of the situation from NPR:

Riding high on the oil boom of the late 2000s, the state followed the Kansas model and slashed taxes. But the promised prosperity never came. In many cases, it was just the opposite.

Around 20 percent of Oklahoma’s schools now hold classes just four days a week. Last year, highway patrol officers were given a mileage limit because the state couldn’t afford to put gas in their tanks. Medicaid provider rates have been cut to the point that rural nursing homes and hospitals are closing, and the prisons are so full that the director of corrections says they’re on the brink of a crisis.

Just to reiterate: The state has so little money that 1 in 5 schools is open only four days a week. Gov. Mary Fallin and Republicans in the state legislature are debating a plan to increase taxes to try to address some of these problems, including giving a raise to teachers. Which is sorely needed, because Oklahoma pays its teachers less than any other state in the country.

That’s not to mention the other problems the state could be addressing, but isn’t. For instance, like many Republican states, Oklahoma refused to accept the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid, and partly as a result it ranks eighth on the list of states with the highest proportion of its population without health insurance.

So if you suddenly became governor of a state somewhere, would you say, “We really need to duplicate what they did in Oklahoma”? Before you answer, consider that Oklahoma ranks 43rd in household income. And if you look at that list, you’ll find that of the top 10 states with the highest income, seven are strong Democratic states, two are states where Democrats and Republicans share power (Virginia and New Hampshire), and only one, Alaska, could be described as a red state. At the other end, nine of the 10  poorest states are Republican-controlled (New Mexico is the exception), where somehow their genius governing model has failed to produce the results they predict.

If Oklahoma’s experience sounds familiar, it’s because something similar happened recently in Kansas. Sam Brownback was elected governor in 2010 and promised a grand “experiment” in Republican economics that would turn the state into a paradise of prosperity. Taxes were slashed, particularly for the wealthy, including the elimination of state taxes on “pass-through” income, not dissimilar from a provision in the tax cut Republicans in Congress recently passed (though in the latter case it was a giant deduction, not a complete elimination of the tax).

What was the result? Something resembling a catastrophe. Revenues plummeted, requiring brutal cutbacks in social services. The state’s bond rating got downgraded. The promised growth didn’t materialize — in fact, the state grew at a lower rate than the rest of the country through the recovery of the Obama years. Job growth in the state between the time the tax cuts were enacted and when they were scaled back in 2017 — after saner Republicans in the state revolted against the governor — was less than half of what it was in the rest of the country, and lower than every one of Kansas’s neighbors except one. Want to guess which state had lower job growth even than Kansas? That’s right: Oklahoma.

There are two lessons here. The first is that trickle-down economics just doesn’t work. Giving benefits to the wealthy and corporations doesn’t produce prosperity for all. It just doesn’t. Every time Republicans propose a tax cut, they say that this time will be different, but it never is. And second, people actually value the services government provides — like having schools that stay open five days a week. When you slash revenue so that you can’t afford those things, the public isn’t happy about it.

So is the same thing going to happen to the whole country now that the Kansas/Oklahoma model is being implemented at the federal level? The answer is, it’s complicated. Unlike states, the federal government doesn’t have to balance its budget every year, which means you can slash revenue without having to cut spending to compensate, at least not immediately. Which is exactly what Republicans just did: Because of their tax cut, the deficit in 2019 is projected to exceed a trillion dollars, a level it hasn’t hit since 2012. And we’re approaching a budget agreement that will increase spending, which will limit the damage.

Nevertheless, Republicans are still going to try to implement the spending side of their governing model: They’re trying to make Medicaid harder to get, and they’d like to privatize Medicare and cut back on things such as food stamps. That combines with a deregulatory agenda that will take away workers’ rights, make our air and water dirtier, and pull back on efforts to address climate change.

So on the whole, while Republicans in Washington won’t be able to turn the entire country into Oklahoma overnight, they’re going to give it their best shot. And they’ll keep saying that if we just cut taxes for the wealthy and slash social spending, everything will work out great. No matter how many times they’re proved wrong.

 

[Howl]

This is not exactly Texas statehouse, but this is the closest place to put this, and it definitely has to do with political patronage, in this case awarding a plum chairmanship to a far right ding bat. 

Texas has come up with something called the Texas Commission on Public School Finance to try to get a handle on the chronic problem disaster of how to equitably finance public education in this state. 

Gov. Abbott, of all the possibly qualified people in our state, chose Scott Brister to chair this committee.  A controversial ex -Texas Supreme Court justice, he was considered by his fellow lawyers to have been one of the worst judges in Texas, was sued for posting a copy of the 10 commandments in his courtroom in the 1990s, doesn't think that the jury system works very well  if at all, and (no surprise!) was originally appointed by Rick Perry to fill a court vacancy.  And did I mention homeschooling dad and fanatical Christian rights proponent?  Texas children are so screwed, because nothing says "I hate public school education and would like to destroy it" like homeschooling your kids. 

[GreyhoundFan]

The Repugs continue to sink lower and lower: "Texas Republicans are trying to purge Democrats from ballots: report"

Spoiler

Dallas County Republicans have filed a lawsuit on Friday alleging that the county's Democratic Party leader did not sign the petitions of 128 Democratic primary candidates, placing them in jeopardy of being kicked off the March 6 primary ballot.

Republicans believe Dallas County Democratic Party Chairman Carol Donovan violated state law by not signing the petitions, prior to sending them to the Texas Secretary of State's office, The Dallas Morning News reported. If the lawsuit were to be successful, 128 Democrats would be wiped from the ballots, providing Republicans with ample opportunity to potentially sweep upcoming elections in November.

"The Election Code says the chairman, and nobody else, has to sign them," Elizabeth Alvarez Bingham, a lawyer for the Dallas County Republican Party, told the DMN. "Carol Donovan is the chair. She was supposed to sign them. She didn't do it."

The lawsuit was filed on Friday, and Democrats were first notified of the lawsuit when a lawyer for the party showed them on Sunday afternoon. Donovan hasn't pushed back on the assertion that she didn't sign the petitions, as required by state law, but said the lawsuit is being taken "seriously."

"We have assembled a legal team of Dallas' best and brightest Democratic election law attorneys," Donovan said in a news release, Dallas News reported. "Though we are taking this case seriously, the Republican Party's lawsuit is not supported by Texas law. We will fight to ensure that all Democratic voters in Dallas County can participate in a fair Primary election."

 

[Howl]

I'll try to follow this.  The Salon article is dated Jan. 22, but there were no updates -- maybe it hasn't moved along in the courts yet. 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Wife of 80-year-old state senator accompanies him to work each day. Some say she assists him with duties."

Spoiler

Spouses and children abound on the opening day of the Maryland General Assembly’s annual session, so Shirley A. Gravely-Currie’s presence next to her husband, Sen. Ulysses Currie (D-Prince George’s) was unremarkable.

But then Gravely-Currie returned the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that.

Since the Jan. 10 start of the 90-day legislative session, Currie’s wife has sat an arm’s length away from her husband in a reserved seat, Senate floor credentials dangling from a lanyard around her neck.

Her presence has drawn attention not only to her husband’s diminishing health but also to the graying of the Maryland legislature and the delicate question in this statehouse and others of how long is too long to serve.

“Too many people don’t want to let go . . . They don’t want to pass the torch to the next generation,” said Belinda Queen-Howard, who represents Currie’s legislative district on the county’s Democratic Central Committee and was part of a group that objected to a plan last year to have Currie retire and allow his wife to complete his term.

As Americans live and work longer, it has become more common to see aging lawmakers on Capitol Hill or in statehouses across the country. Late last year, Congress delayed action on several key pieces of legislation to accommodate older, ailing senators.

Perhaps because of an unusually large crop of new lawmakers elected in 2014, Maryland is actually one of the youngest state legislatures in the country, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The average age of a lawmaker in Annapolis is 57. But a half-dozen delegates and senators, including Currie, are octogenarians, and nearly 30, including Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) are in their 70s.

Currie, 80, is not the oldest member of the body (that distinction belongs to Del. Sheila E. Hixson (D-Montgomery), who turns 85 this month), but he stands apart from his peers because he is the only lawmaker with a close family member who appears to be providing assistance with daily legislative duties. Currie votes on legislation, but he seldom participates in discussions.

The senator declined a request for an interview.

Gravely-Currie, 67, described her husband as “fully engaged” in his legislative duties and said she is spending time with him in the statehouse this session as part of her research for a book she is writing on his life.

“If my husband were planning to run for reelection at his age, I would understand your story angle. However, he is not,” Gravely-Currie said in response to questions about Currie’s health. “His health is of no concern to your readers.”

There is no procedure for removing a legislator from office because of failing health.

Hixson, like Currie, is known to have a tendency to forget or repeat herself. She was removed last year from her position as chairwoman of the House Ways and Means Committee. And after some coaxing from friends, she announced in November that she does not plan to run for an 11th term.

During an interview last year, she talked about her career, which spans more than four decades.

“New delegates will come in and say, ‘I’ve got this great idea for a bill,’ and my staff will say: ‘Sheila put that in 20 years ago,’ ” Hixson said, adding with a smile: “Not that I’ve been around too long.”

Currie, a 32-year lawmaker who was acquitted in a federal corruption case in 2011, announced in November 2016 that he planned to retire. He cited his declining health and said he could “no longer serve with the strength and energy you all deserve.”

Miller supported Currie’s plan to have his wife fill the seat and expected the county’s Democratic Central Committee to back it, as well. But most members of the committee resisted, saying other interested candidates, who weren’t handpicked by the party establishment, deserved a chance to compete for the seat.

In response to the standoff, Currie, considered the dean of African American lawmakers in the statehouse, rescinded his resignation.

Former delegate Melony G. Griffith, Del. Angela M. Angel (D-Prince George’s) and newcomer Jonathan E. Rosero have filed to run for his seat in November.

In the meantime, Gravely-Currie is attending meetings intended solely for lawmakers, including a recent breakfast with Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and members of the Legislative Black Caucus. Last week, she sat on the floor of the House chamber, in a seat reserved for senators, during Hogan’s State of the State speech.

Gravely-Currie doesn’t vote and hasn’t participated in committee hearings or floor sessions. She occasionally reads papers that come across her husband’s desk, and following a recent Senate session, she walked around the chamber to gather signatures of co-sponsors for a bill to expand funding for Head Start that Currie is sponsoring.

She also acts as her husband’s chauffeur in Annapolis, although she said Currie still drives around the Prince George’s County neighborhood where they have lived for decades.

Asked about Currie’s physical and mental health, she said: “He’s physically in better shape than me . . . It’s hard keeping up with him sometimes.”

And his mental shape?

“What he says to me and others who ask is: ‘I’m not like I used to be,’ ” she said. “But who is?”

The senator’s colleagues are reluctant to talk publicly about why his wife has been by his side in the statehouse this year.

“It is what it is,” said one senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a colleague.

“Some days he’s sharp, others not so much,” said another senator, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity but recalled Currie showing up in the wrong committee room last year and apologizing for being late.

Miller, through a spokesman, declined to comment.

Some supporters in Currie’s legislative district say the senator, who has served as a mentor for many young black lawmakers, should be able to finish his last term without scrutiny.

“You don’t mess with grandpa,” said one politically active constituent, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity because the topic is sensitive.

But Queen-Howard disagreed, saying many of Currie’s constituents are aware of his failing health. She said Currie should have already stepped aside.

“A lot of people think passing the torch means to the young,” Queen-Howard said. “It could be someone who is just in the next generation, the next person waiting in line.”

You know, I think it's great that he's been a mentor, but he could continue mentoring young people without taking up a space in the legislature.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[onekidanddone]

1 hour ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

To the tune of Time Warp:

Let's do the Blue Flip again!

[GreyhoundFan]

"Democrat wins state race in Florida"

Spoiler

SARASOTA, Fla. — Corey Lewandowski delivered a warning to Florida Republicans: James Buchanan was their candidate in a fast-approaching special state House election and Democrats could beat him.

“They’re winning elections in places where they shouldn’t be,” Lewandowski, former campaign manager to Donald Trump in 2016, said Sunday at a rally near Sarasota’s airfield. “We’ve seen them win statehouse seats in Wisconsin. We’ve seen them win big mayor’s races in New Hampshire. Fifty seats have already changed hands, from Republicans to Democrats, since President Trump took office. Make no mistake: The Democrats are unified.”

Nine months before the midterm elections, and with some polls finding a slight Republican recovery, some in Trump’s party are increasingly worried about local and special elections that have shown a persistent Democratic shift.

On Tuesday, they faced three more tests in districts that were reliably red until last year, winning the Florida race between Buchanan, a Tampa Bay-area realtor, and Democratic nominee Margaret Good, an attorney, while the Republican won in Georgia and Oklahoma race was still being counted.

Both parties are pumping money into low-turnout races; both freely admit that they are becoming referenda on the president. The risks in Florida were clear long before the results came in.

“This is going to set the tone for 2018, and I’m telling you, it’s going to come down to a few hundred votes, if that,” said Buchanan, shaking hands after Sunday’s rally. “You can’t become complacent. It’s important that we get a win here.”

Buchanan, whose father, Vern Buchanan, has represented the area in Congress since 2007, was acutely aware of what had happened in other states. Lewandowski had slightly overstated it; since January 2017, Democrats had flipped 35 seats from red to blue, while Republicans had flipped four seats in the other direction.

National Republicans say the trend is overrated. “Twenty of the 35 special election wins for the Democrats since 2016 were in districts won by Hillary Clinton,” said David James, a spokesman for the Republican State Leadership Committee. “Liberal groups have been outspending Republicans on an average of 3 to 1, just to win back seats they should have never lost.”

But for years, Democrats had been spending little, and losing more — nearly 1,000 state legislative seats, many gerrymandered further out of reach after the party was routed in 2010. Starting last year, they’ve seen money and volunteers flood the sort of local races where the party had been wiped out during Barack Obama’s presidency. In many of the races they’ve lost, they’ve erased most of Republicans’ margins, often with the same pattern — strong Democratic turnout in suburbs and a Republican fade in rural voting. In an average of legislative races, Democrats have seen a 11.9 percent swing since 2016 results.

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, helmed by former attorney general Eric Holder, has reportedly raised $16 million toward a goal of flipping statehouses ahead of 2020. On Monday in Minnesota, Democrats held a state Senate seat and shrunk the Republican margin in a state House election; the NDRC had plunked down $40,000 there, and the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee had spent close to $130,000. In Florida, the rumors of national Democratic meddling were resonating with Republicans.

“If George Soros came down to Sarasota, I don’t think he’d make it out in one piece,” said Don Baldauf, a Republican activist who attended the Sunday rally, referring to the wealthy Democratic donor.

Holder’s group has stayed out of the Florida race, but the DLCC took an early interest in a contest that could be a model for its 2018 ambitions. The 72nd district, covering much of Sarasota County, gave Trump a small five-point victory; countywide, Republicans outnumber Democrats by about 12,000 votes.

But the prosperous, growing Sarasota area looks like the parts of the country where Democrats have gained ground. In 2017, Democrats flipped a state Senate seat in a part of Miami that had been trending blue; Good, who was already running in Sarasota, felt an immediate boost. The DLCC’s regional field director, Michael McCall, and the group’s national field director, Graham Wilson, pivoted to help the Good campaign boost turnout in a district with no recent record of electing Democrats.

In an interview, Buchanan conceded that Good had probably won the early vote, which ended Saturday. Joe Gruters, the longtime Republican chairman in Sarasota County, said that Democrats had piled in to flip the district while underestimating the GOP’s ability to push back.

“They’ve airdropped 50 guys and gals in this district to do get-out-the-vote, so if we beat them here, then they should be ashamed of themselves,” said Gruters. “From a national standpoint, the end is here for the Democrats. Some people are afraid of affiliating with Donald Trump right now; we believe that Donald Trump is going to lead our people to victory, both on Tuesday and in November.”

Neither side is coy about the national implications. A piece of direct mail from the pro-Buchanan PAC Leadership for Florida’s Future warns that “Margaret Good and her liberal pal Nancy Pelosi want to expand Obamacare in Florida.” A competing piece of mail from Good’s campaign tells voters that “she’s running to fight for our progressive values and stop Donald Trump.”

On Monday, as Good knocked on doors, the anti-Trump message seemed to be sticking. Laura Morris, a doctor and former Republican who volunteered for Good’s campaign, said that the president’s defense of disgraced ex-staffer Rob Porter, facing allegations of spousal abuse, had gotten her angry all over again.

“He is on the side of wife beaters, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he cheated on his current wife,” Morris said.

Good, who was encouraging die-hard Democrats to vote, said that she had focused on issues vital in Sarasota — environment crises that the state government seemed to ignore, education and the need to expand Medicaid. But she thought that the president’s response to the Porter case also was moving votes.

“It was part of the culture of misogyny that this White House is perpetrating,” Good said. “I won’t stand for it, and I don’t think the people of Sarasota will, either.”

On Tuesday morning, when polls opened, both Buchanan and Good stopped by their home precinct — they were neighbors, electorally speaking — to meet last-minute voters. Thirty minutes into Election Day, just nine voters had gone to the polling booth.

“It’s going to come down to who turns out,” said Buchanan.

The first voters, however, went for the Democrat. Carl and Penny Morrison, retirees who said that they always voted Democratic, said they have felt a new urgency while Trump is president.

“I don’t even know if there’ll be another election in three years,” said Carl Morrison. “If he rallies enough people with firearms, he can prevent people from voting and call himself leader forever.”

Jeff Robertson, who stopped to talk to Good on his way out of the polls, said that he’d reluctantly voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 because Trump was “a terrifying individual.” As an independent, he was surprised by the “stacks” of negative mail he got about Good, which he’d decided to ignore after hearing friends talk her up as a candidate.

“They were probably for my wife; she’s a Republican,” he said. “She’s going to vote later, but she’s voting for Good.”

I hope we can keep flipping seats to the blue column.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

Words fail me...

 

[AmazonGrace]

Some Upstate lawmakers want to call non-heterosexual marriages 'parody marriages' in new bill

http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/37532356/upstate-lawmakers-want-to-call-non-heterosexual-marriages-parody-marriages-in-new-bill

The Vote-Them-Out list:

Spartanburg District 37 Rep. Steven Wayne Long (R)

Spartanburg District 35 Rep. William M. "Bill" Chumley (R)

Greenville District 17 Rep. James Mikell "Mike" Burns (R)

Greenwood District 13 Rep. John R. McCravy, III (R)

Spartanburg District 38 Rep. Josiah Magnuson (R)

Newberry District 40 Rep. Richard "Rick" Martin (R)

This is South Carolina.

[fraurosena]

Oh, those poor, poor Repugs, how this must hurt...

 

[Cartmann99]

On 2/19/2018 at 11:40 AM, AmazonGrace said:

Some Upstate lawmakers want to call non-heterosexual marriages 'parody marriages' in new bill

Sorry kids, that term already applies to any marriage involving a Trump family member.

[onekidanddone]

Home to Rand Paul and McTurtle 

 

[GrumpyGran]

Oh, joy, my state is attempting to make abortion illegal again. An interesting point was brought up in the article. What will we do with frozen embryos? If this is passed, they are babies. You can't dispose of them. Right? That's murder.

I wonder how these Right to Life people who can't conceive in the traditional way will feel about being told that they have to have every single embryo implanted at some point. Wanted to have one or two kids? Sorry we have 9 viable embryos! I know they usually implant several at once but we know the odds of all of them coming to term is small so aren't the parents agreeing to put some of their "children" in danger?

It will be interesting to see how they exclude this. Yeah, sorry if you're likely to die, Mom, it's more important that this baby is born so your husband can struggle to raise four kids alone. But those frozen embryos, let's don't talk about that.

[fraurosena]

We're not corrupt! We're not corrupt! We're not... And if you continue to say we are with your proof of donations, then we'll just drag you off!

Vote those corrupt suckers out!

[GreyhoundFan]

"The GOP Is Serious About Impeaching P.A. Judges for Reversing Their Gerrymander"

Spoiler

When a Pennsylvania Republican legislator responded to the invalidation by his state’s Supreme Court of the congressional map he and his colleagues had fashioned by introducing articles of impeachment of the five justices involved, nobody was terribly surprised, even though Cris Dush’s argument that the court was defying the sovereignty of God was a bit exotic.

And when Republican U.S. representative Ryan Costello joined the impeachment parade, that, too was predictable: The new congressional map made his relatively safe district highly competitive. Of course he’d respond to this existential threat to his career with every weapon imaginable.

But now the impeachment talk is getting serious, as the Hill reports:

Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey (R) called for a “conversation” about impeaching state Supreme Court justices over their new congressional map, which both parties say will benefit Democrats.

At a press conference, Toomey said it was “inevitable” that state lawmakers would consider impeachment over the redrawing of the state’s new congressional maps, which he called a “power grab” by state Democrats.

Actually, to be more precise, Toomey called it a “blatant, unconstitutional, partisan power grab,” and while he didn’t say that it rose to the level of an impeachable offense, it sure sounds like it would were it true.

At the very least, it’s time to figure out if Republicans have the power to reshape the Pennsylvania Supreme Court if they apply to the task the kind of unity they have exhibited in their impressively partisan gerrymandering efforts. The answer is probably yes.

Under Pennsylvania’s constitution, elected officials can be impeached by a majority of the state House and a two-thirds supermajority of the state Senate. Thanks in so small part to the kind of gerrymandering that gave them 13 of 18 congressional seats with a bare majority of popular votes, the GOP has the necessary margins in both legislative chambers.

The bigger question is what happens if the dog catches this particular bus and the five Democratic justices are removed from office. The governor, who happens to be a Democrat, fills vacancies in the state courts. But the governor’s nominees must be confirmed by a two-thirds vote in the state Senate. So Pennsylvania Republicans could be looking down the barrel of a stalemate or even a constitutional crisis that leaves the state’s highest court without a majority of its judges.

Perhaps the impeachment talk is a negotiating ploy, or even an act of intimidation to encourage the five Supreme Court justices to think twice before applying the principles it used to redraw the congressional map to the legislative maps that have perpetuated GOP control. But Republicans really ought to think about how this will come across in the court of public opinion. Sure, their “base” voters are always open to efforts to curb the influence of “activist judges” (so long as the activism in question isn’t of the right-wing variety). But do they really want to go to the mats — and to the electorate —over the claim that they have some sort of divine right to representation in Washington or in Harrisburg that vastly exceeds their share of the statewide vote?

It’s a good question.

Rethuglikans indeed.

[CTRLZero]

A representative in Washington state recounted the tragic knifing of dozens of Norwegian school children to demonstrate there is more danger in owning knives than guns.  There was a slight problem with his story.  Excerpted from a Seattle Times article (many WTF moments):

Another GOP idiot gets it wrong
 

Spoiler

 

OLYMPIA — Washington House Minority Leader Rep. Dan Kristiansen this week told a story about a Norwegian knife-murderer that sounded like it was ripped straight from a Scandinavian crime thriller.

Kristiansen, a Republican from Snohomish, talked about how, during his visit to Norway several years ago, a perpetrator attacked a youth camp on an island — and killed more than two dozen children with a knife.

"More people are actually killed by knives than by guns,” said Kristiansen in a regularly scheduled news conference Tuesday, after he recounted the Norway story. “Not just in our country but around the world.”

But that knife attack never happened, according to a Norwegian criminology professor.

And several studies disprove Kristiansen’s assertion that knives contribute to more deaths than firearms.

The remarks came on a day Kristiansen and other Republicans sought to deflect questions about proposals in the Washington Legislature to increase gun regulations.

'If you invent mass knife attacks, you lose the gun-control debate'

Spurred by the latest mass shooting — this one in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people died — some elected officials are making a new push for restrictions on firearms.

President Donald Trump this week declared he had directed federal officials to ban bump stocks, devices used to make rifles fire more rapidly. The president also sent a tweet urging Democrats and Republicans to embrace stronger gun-purchase background checks.

Meanwhile, the Florida shooting has spurred Democrats in Olympia to revive their push for a bill to add enhanced background checks for the purchase of assault-style weapons like the AR-15.

They don’t have much time — the legislative session is scheduled to end March 8.

....

2011 attack

Norway hasn’t experienced a mass killing by knife, according to Heidi Mork Lomell, a professor at the University of Oslo.

The only mass killing in modern Norwegian history came from the gunman who in 2011 killed 69 people, Lomell, a professor at the school’s Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, wrote in an email.

That shooting — which coincided with a bomb blast in Oslo that killed eight others — did happen at a youth camp on an island.

Recent research shows that firearms contribute to far more killings than knives.

In 2016, knives were used in 18 murders in Washington state, compared to 95 with firearms, according to a report by the Washington Association of Police Chiefs and Sheriffs.

Between 2011 and 2015, firearms were used in homicides around the nation far more often than knives, according to data by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

A 2013 United Nations study found firearms around the world were used in 41 percent of homicides, compared with 24 percent by sharp objects.

Objects like knives were the leading cause of murders in more countries than guns, according to the report — but firearms caused more overall deaths.

In an interview Wednesday, Kristiansen acknowledged getting some numbers wrong. In terms of the Norway story he recounted, Kristiansen said, he “mixed up some things.”

“What I need to do a better job of,” said Kristiansen, “is make sure I’m not shooting off the hip on things.”

Lawmakers should focus on other causes of gun violence, Kristiansen said, such as mental-health issues and suicide, which account for a significant number of gun-related deaths.

Legislators should also work to make sure people can respond adequately to mass shootings when they happen, he said.

Kristiansen pointed to a Republican-sponsored proposal, HB 2442, that would create a mobile app for students to report mass shootings.

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Wow: "As an Arkansas judge, he dismissed sentences for sexual favors. Now he's going to prison."

Spoiler

For seven years, scores of young men in Arkansas saw their traffic citations and misdemeanor criminal charges dismissed — as long as they agreed to perform “community service.”

The judge overseeing these cases, Joseph Boeckmann, district judge for the First Judicial Circuit of Arkansas, would call each young man up to the bench after a hearing. He would provide each man with his personal telephone number, telling him to call and arrange the “community service.”

Time and time again, the young men would follow suit, “not knowing what truly lay in store,” Peter Halpern, trial attorney for the Department of Justice, wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed in court last week.

As their “community service,” Boeckmann would require the men to collect aluminum cans or litter off the ground. At the same time, he took pictures of them “in embarrassing positions; positions that he found sexually gratifying,” the court document said. He admitted to the scheme last October.

On Wednesday, he was sentenced to five years in prison for “perpetrating a seven-year-long fraud and bribery scheme” for his own personal and sexual benefits, according to a Department of Justice news release. Boeckmann also bribed a witness in an attempt to obstruct the investigation into his scheme, which lasted from at least 2009 to 2015, authorities said.

In his sentencing memo, Halpern called Boeckmann “a predator who used his position as a judge to gain access to vulnerable young men in order to satisfy his own prurient desires.” The judge, Halpern said, used “the men’s powerlessness and poor socioeconomic circumstances to create a personal collection of explicit, exploitative images.”

“His actions impacted dozens if not hundreds of young men, he caused unknown financial losses to various cities and counties, and he tampered with witnesses in an attempt to keep his reprehensible conduct secret,” Halpern wrote.

Boeckmann’s lawyer had asked for home detention for his 71-year-old client, calling him “an elderly, broken, ailing man,” according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Prosecutors asked for about three years. But the presiding judge, U.S. District Judge Kristine G. Baker, ordered an even stiffer sentence — five years.

“He acted corruptly while serving as a judge. When his back was against the wall, he obstructed justice,” Baker said, according to the Associated Press. “That sets his crime apart.”

Baker also ordered Boeckmann to serve three years of supervised release following his prison sentence and pay a fine of $50,000.

Boeckmann’s federal indictment, filed in October 2016, came after a months-long investigation by the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disciplinary Commission. Boeckmann resigned from his judicial post in May 2016 after the commission revealed evidence that he sexually preyed on men charged with minor crimes for years.

In October 2017, he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and witness tampering. He admitted to the “community service” scheme, which defrauded the state, counties, cities and courts of money they should have received as fees from the individuals whose cases were dismissed, Department of Justice  officials said in a news release.

In addition, Boeckmann admitted to trying to silence at least one witness once he learned he was under investigation; in the fall of 2015, he paid a witness to write a letter recanting truthful information the witness had given to the disciplinary commission.

During a search of Boeckmann’s home, investigators found at least 46 printed photographs and thousands of digital images of young men, according to court documents.

Boeckmann’s sentencing revealed additional details about the scale and scope of the former judge’s abuse. In 2014 alone, for example, he dismissed 66 cases involving men between the ages of 15 and 35 based on their completion of “community service,” according to court documents. Prosecutors believe the number of victims could be in the dozens or hundreds.

Two of those victims testified at Wednesday’s sentencing hearing. Kyle Butler said the judge forced him to pose for photos and threatened his life if he didn’t recant details he had given state investigators, according to the AP.

Richard Milliman of Memphis said the judge took photographs of him from behind as he picked up cans for community service. He offered Milliman $300 to pose like Michelangelo’s David sculpture, but Milliman refused, according to the AP.

“I’ve never felt more betrayed by the justice system,” Milliman said in court.

But Boeckmann’s predatory behavior began long before his time as judge, court documents revealed last week. In his sentencing memo, Halpern presented evidence from two previous FBI investigations dating back to the mid-1990s, when Boeckmann was a part-time deputy prosecutor for Cross County. These investigations revealed similar allegations that Boeckmann was dismissing charges in exchange for “community service” and sexual acts.

FBI agents interviewed at least seven young men who said Boeckmann photographed them clothed or naked while bending over and doing “community service.” In one case, Boeckmann ordered a young man charged with driving while intoxicated to accompany him to a field and pull down his pants while Boeckmann took photographs.

“The similarity between the accounts … are striking and demonstrate the defendant’s clear and continuous pattern of abuse dating back at least 20 years,” Halpern wrote in the sentencing memo.

Federal prosecutors decided not to charge Boeckmann after he agreed to give up his post as deputy prosecuting attorney in 1998. Only a few years later, Boeckmann ran for and was elected as district court judge, allowing this abuse to continue.

During sentencing, Boeckmann’s lawyer, Jeff Rosenzweig, said it would not be fair to cite the investigations from the 1990s, since his client’s fading memory would make the claims difficult to dispute, according to the AP.

But in his sentencing memo, Halpern lashed back at arguments over Boeckmann’s age, saying Boeckmann effectively “wants sympathy for the fact that he was able to carry out his scheme for so long.”

“He wants credit for having avoided detection,” Halpern said. “He wants special consideration for some of the very things that make his actions so egregious.”

“No one in his courtroom was treated fairly,” Halpern added. “He eroded the community’s trust in the fair administration of justice.”

 

[onekidanddone]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Wow: "As an Arkansas judge, he dismissed sentences for sexual favors. Now he's going to prison."

  Hide contents

For seven years, scores of young men in Arkansas saw their traffic citations and misdemeanor criminal charges dismissed — as long as they agreed to perform “community service.”

The judge overseeing these cases, Joseph Boeckmann, district judge for the First Judicial Circuit of Arkansas, would call each young man up to the bench after a hearing. He would provide each man with his personal telephone number, telling him to call and arrange the “community service.”

Time and time again, the young men would follow suit, “not knowing what truly lay in store,” Peter Halpern, trial attorney for the Department of Justice, wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed in court last week.

As their “community service,” Boeckmann would require the men to collect aluminum cans or litter off the ground. At the same time, he took pictures of them “in embarrassing positions; positions that he found sexually gratifying,” the court document said. He admitted to the scheme last October.

On Wednesday, he was sentenced to five years in prison for “perpetrating a seven-year-long fraud and bribery scheme” for his own personal and sexual benefits, according to a Department of Justice news release. Boeckmann also bribed a witness in an attempt to obstruct the investigation into his scheme, which lasted from at least 2009 to 2015, authorities said.

In his sentencing memo, Halpern called Boeckmann “a predator who used his position as a judge to gain access to vulnerable young men in order to satisfy his own prurient desires.” The judge, Halpern said, used “the men’s powerlessness and poor socioeconomic circumstances to create a personal collection of explicit, exploitative images.”

“His actions impacted dozens if not hundreds of young men, he caused unknown financial losses to various cities and counties, and he tampered with witnesses in an attempt to keep his reprehensible conduct secret,” Halpern wrote.

Boeckmann’s lawyer had asked for home detention for his 71-year-old client, calling him “an elderly, broken, ailing man,” according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Prosecutors asked for about three years. But the presiding judge, U.S. District Judge Kristine G. Baker, ordered an even stiffer sentence — five years.

“He acted corruptly while serving as a judge. When his back was against the wall, he obstructed justice,” Baker said, according to the Associated Press. “That sets his crime apart.”

Baker also ordered Boeckmann to serve three years of supervised release following his prison sentence and pay a fine of $50,000.

Boeckmann’s federal indictment, filed in October 2016, came after a months-long investigation by the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disciplinary Commission. Boeckmann resigned from his judicial post in May 2016 after the commission revealed evidence that he sexually preyed on men charged with minor crimes for years.

In October 2017, he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and witness tampering. He admitted to the “community service” scheme, which defrauded the state, counties, cities and courts of money they should have received as fees from the individuals whose cases were dismissed, Department of Justice  officials said in a news release.

In addition, Boeckmann admitted to trying to silence at least one witness once he learned he was under investigation; in the fall of 2015, he paid a witness to write a letter recanting truthful information the witness had given to the disciplinary commission.

During a search of Boeckmann’s home, investigators found at least 46 printed photographs and thousands of digital images of young men, according to court documents.

Boeckmann’s sentencing revealed additional details about the scale and scope of the former judge’s abuse. In 2014 alone, for example, he dismissed 66 cases involving men between the ages of 15 and 35 based on their completion of “community service,” according to court documents. Prosecutors believe the number of victims could be in the dozens or hundreds.

Two of those victims testified at Wednesday’s sentencing hearing. Kyle Butler said the judge forced him to pose for photos and threatened his life if he didn’t recant details he had given state investigators, according to the AP.

Richard Milliman of Memphis said the judge took photographs of him from behind as he picked up cans for community service. He offered Milliman $300 to pose like Michelangelo’s David sculpture, but Milliman refused, according to the AP.

“I’ve never felt more betrayed by the justice system,” Milliman said in court.

But Boeckmann’s predatory behavior began long before his time as judge, court documents revealed last week. In his sentencing memo, Halpern presented evidence from two previous FBI investigations dating back to the mid-1990s, when Boeckmann was a part-time deputy prosecutor for Cross County. These investigations revealed similar allegations that Boeckmann was dismissing charges in exchange for “community service” and sexual acts.

FBI agents interviewed at least seven young men who said Boeckmann photographed them clothed or naked while bending over and doing “community service.” In one case, Boeckmann ordered a young man charged with driving while intoxicated to accompany him to a field and pull down his pants while Boeckmann took photographs.

“The similarity between the accounts … are striking and demonstrate the defendant’s clear and continuous pattern of abuse dating back at least 20 years,” Halpern wrote in the sentencing memo.

Federal prosecutors decided not to charge Boeckmann after he agreed to give up his post as deputy prosecuting attorney in 1998. Only a few years later, Boeckmann ran for and was elected as district court judge, allowing this abuse to continue.

During sentencing, Boeckmann’s lawyer, Jeff Rosenzweig, said it would not be fair to cite the investigations from the 1990s, since his client’s fading memory would make the claims difficult to dispute, according to the AP.

But in his sentencing memo, Halpern lashed back at arguments over Boeckmann’s age, saying Boeckmann effectively “wants sympathy for the fact that he was able to carry out his scheme for so long.”

“He wants credit for having avoided detection,” Halpern said. “He wants special consideration for some of the very things that make his actions so egregious.”

“No one in his courtroom was treated fairly,” Halpern added. “He eroded the community’s trust in the fair administration of justice.”

 

Sign on the highway: Welcome to Arkansas! Home to Tom Cotton, Mike Fuck-a-bee, Josh Duggar and Derick Dillard. We have the most best fuck sticks!

[AnywhereButHere]

Well isn’t this just lovely... 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2018/02/22/florida-house-votes-to-force-schools-to-display-in-god-we-trust-a-day-after-refusing-to-consider-gun-control/?utm_term=.26bc3c2c5a06

Florida is a hot mess. But, you know, priorities. 

Quote

If the Florida House of Representatives has its way, all public schools in the Sunshine State will soon be required to post the words “In God We Trust” — the state’s motto — on all campuses where students and staff can see them.

The House voted on the legislation Wednesday — 97 to 10, with members standing and applauding the results —  after finding time to debate and approve a bill declaring pornography a “public health risk.”

Yet the House refused, 71 to 37,  to take up a bill this week to ban assault weapons, which had been supported by student survivors of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where a gunman killed 17 people.

I’m here now on vacation, and after seeing this, I can’t wait to get the hell out.

[candygirl200413]

So porn is a public health risk and we need a banner of Jesus in schools to stop shootings. Got it Florida!

[LeftCoastLurker]

2 hours ago, candygirl200413 said:

So porn is a public health risk and we need a banner of Jesus in schools to stop shootings. Got it Florida!

#boycottflorida